JoinAll Case Studies
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Suggested Keywords, to help with your search (besides selecting subjects): clicker cases, directed cases, interrupted cases, discussion cases, intimate debate cases. As a reminder, all cases may be adjusted to meet the needs of your student level. See our case use guidelines.
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By Sarah A. Wojiski
This clicker case was designed to teach students about basic enzyme structure, mechanisms of enzyme inhibition, and mechanisms of drug resistance. The story follows Oliver Casey, a patient afflicted with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). CML is cau...
By Karen S. Huffman
Protein folding and trafficking is essential for normal cell function, and when it goes awry it can lead to various chronic conditions, including fatty liver disease, diabetes, and Parkinson's. The narrative of this case study follows two undergradua...
By Reinaldo Perez, Andres Arango, Kathleen S. Rein
This case study involves the structure elucidation of the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone or THG by the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. This steroid was allegedly synthesized by BALCO organic chemist Patrick Arnold and was allegedly used by...
By Helen S. Joyner
In this case study students assume the role of quality assurance personnel at a small artisan cheese company. They are given a flowchart of the cheesemaking process and a set of process data. They must develop control charts to monitor process qualit...
By Annie Prud’homme-Genereux
Three experiments carried out by the Mars Viking landers in 1976 remain, to this day, our only attempt to detect life on another planet. All other efforts have looked for the presence of elements or conditions thought to be necessary for life rather ...
By Gabriel D. McNett
For years whale evolution was characterized by speculation and limited evidence. Evolution critics even focused on whales as a means to criticize evolutionary theory. Now whale evolution represents one of the best examples of "macroevolution." This "...
By Kristine A. Garner, Brandy C. Ree
This interrupted case study was developed for an undergraduate class in human cardiac physiology. The story follows a patient whose heart attack damaged a papillary muscle in the left ventricle of the heart. This caused valve dysfunction and mitral v...
Flowing Fine: Moving Fluids on an Industrial Scale
By Helen S. Joyner
In this case study, students assume the role of a process engineer for a pilot plant. Students are tasked with selecting a piping arrangement from a list of available options, creating a diagram of the flow system, determining the terms needed in the...
By Jamie S. Hughes
This case study challenges students to understand and apply a set of concepts from the domain of social psychology to an inflammatory article that was published in The Guardian. Students prepare by reading a chapter on prejudice and stereotyping and ...
The Perilous Plight of the Pika
By Fleur M. Ferro
This interrupted case study addresses several concepts related to climate change and its effect on the American pika. Often called an indicator species for climate change, the pika has a unique set of variables specific to its environment. Factors su...
By Annie Prud’homme-Genereux, Nicole F. Magill, Tatiana N. Bliss
In biology classes, students are typically taught that spontaneous generation does not take place. And yet, at the origin of life, life had to arise without parents from abiotic processes. What were those processes that gave rise to the first life?&n...
By Helen S. Joyner
In this case study, students assume the role of process engineers in an orange juice production facility. They determine modes of heat transfer to and from the orange juice, develop equations for the heat transfer scenario they have identified, and d...
By Celeste A. Leander
This case study follows a drama that unfolded around a stand of Sitka spruce trees (Picea sitchensis) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The stand held significant historical and cultural significance, particularly to the local first-nations band...
By Eric Ribbens
This clicker case is an adaptation of a case by Loren Byrne that told the true story of a Texas man who killed a cat that was killing piping plovers (see "Complexity in Conservation: The Legal and Ethical Case of a Bird-Eating Cat and its Human Kille...
By Helen S. Joyner, Michael L. Allen
If you were limited to choosing only three crops to sustainably farm in an arid, inhospitable environment, what would they be and how would you decide? This interrupted case study places students in the role of a proposed self-sufficient Martian colo...
By Daniel R. Albert
This case study involves analysis of data collected as part of the National Football League's investigation into the New England Patriots allegedly deflating footballs to gain a competitive advantage in a 2015 playoff game. The scandal and subsequent...
Sweet Beets: Making Sugar Out of Thin Air
By Sarah R. Sletten
This directed case study introduces students to photosynthesis and illustrates how biology plays a vital role in the carbon cycle and the conversion of energy. Set in North Dakota along the Red River of the North, the case uses the sugar beet (Beta v...
By Beth A. Carle
This decision case study is based on the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan that began on March 11, 2011 and examines its status through September 2013. The seven parts of the case were originally developed for delivery over two 75-minute cla...
By Fred B. Schnee, Andrea Bixler
Many biology courses are designed to develop student understanding and application of the scientific method, but few seriously examine the various ethical questions associated with scientific research. This interdisciplinary case study presents three...
By Joshua D. Hartman, Jack F. Eichler
This problem-based case study presents recent advancements in the development and application of technologies geared towards harnessing sunlight for the production of hydrogen from water. A PowerPoint presentation introduces the topic with a New York...
By Eric Ribbens
Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is an invasive plant that can be very hard to eliminate. This PowerPoint-driven case study briefly describes this plant and asks students to identify possible solutions for its control when a homeowner discovers ...
By James A. Carr, Breanna N. Harris
"I Heart Running" is a case study in which students diagnose the cause of exercise-induced tachycardia in an otherwise healthy, 27-year-old female. The patient, Sam, is a long-distance runner and realizes that her exercising heart rate reaches over 2...
Selection and the Blond Beach Mouse
By Joan Sharp
This "clicker" case study explores ultimate and proximate explanations for cryptic coloration in animals through the work of Dr. Hopi Hoekstra of Harvard University, who studies Gulf and Atlantic Coast beach populations of oldfield deer mice that hav...
By Bruce C. Palmquist
The evolution of physiological characteristics can be strongly influenced by physics. Animals whose physiology allows them to better escape predators will live longer, on average, and be more likely to pass on the genes that led to these favorable tr...
From Prairies to Corn Fields for Fuel
By Glenna M. Malcolm
With increasing U.S. government support for biofuel production in the late 2000s came increased pressure to convert more land to cornfields for ethanol. To make way for more corn, millions of acres of prairie grassland were plowed under, destroying a...
By Carly N. Jordan
This interrupted case study explores the role of cytoskeletal structures on human health, specifically on respiratory function, sperm motility, and female fertility. It follows the story of a couple struggling to conceive a child and the doctors work...
Three Cases from the Membrane Files
By Eric Ribbens
This PowerPoint-driven case study presents three different stories, each of which explores an aspect of membranes. The first (The Exploding Fish) covers diffusion, specifically addressing the question of why animal cells explode in freshwater but fis...
By Kevin M. Bonney
This case study provides an overview of the seminal experimental work that led to the discovery of DNA structure and the confirmation of the semi-conservative model of DNA replication. By guiding students through a chronological series of historic ex...
By Helen S. Joyner
In this case study, students assume the role of a process engineer on a whey refinement process. As the process engineer for the line, students must develop a block diagram of the process, perform a mass balance on each step of the process, and...
Which Came First, the Mutation or the Antibiotic?
By Suzanne M. Deschênes, Rosemary M. Danaher, Hema Gopalakrishnan
This case study presents the story of Phil, an undergraduate majoring in biology, whose Russian cousin Dimitri has contracted tuberculosis (TB) from inmates at the prison where he works. Phil learns that his cousin's failure to complete his ant...
By Tracie Y. Hudson
This case study introduces students to the structure and function of cellular organelles and seeks to show their importance by discussing diseases and disorders that can result when an organelle does not function as it should. The storyline follows a...
By J. Phil Gibson
This clicker case addresses several concepts related to the evolutionary ecology of herbivore defenses. A survey of several different studies that investigated chemical defenses in Thymus vulgaris (thyme) gives students the opportunity to develop hyp...
No Longer Fond of the Local Pond
By Stephanie L. Luster-Teasley, Janie G. Locklear, Niva S. King
When an elementary school teacher calls in sick to work, she finds out that she is not the only one who will be missing school that day. Children from her fifth grade class have also become ill and parents are calling to report the absences. Th...
By Troy R. Nash
This directed case study in PowerPoint format focuses on the London Underground Mosquito, Culex molestus, and its potential relationship to the common mosquito, Culex pipiens, in order to explore the topics of evolution, reproductive isolation, and s...
By Matthew P. Rowe
Who wouldn't want to go in search of a creature like Bigfoot, Yeti, or the Loch Ness Monster? Using the science of ecology, students do exactly that in this case study that encompasses a variety of case study teaching formats. Working in ...
By Sandra L. Cooke, Elysia Berkery, Adelle D. Monteblanco, Silvia Secchi
Healthy river systems serve a wide variety of functions, including recreation, crop production, and navigation. Effective floodplain management requires integrating cultural, economic and ecosystem needs, and often tradeoffs must be made. This case s...
By Karobi Moitra
This case study examines the structure of hemoglobin and myoglobin and how the structure of these molecules dictates their function. The case is written as a play in which several candidates have responded to a help wanted ad seeking an employee with...
By Emily M. Nullet, Marissa L. Hayes, Rebecca M. Cordani, Jessalyn A. Myers, Carol R. Connery
This interrupted case study presents the story of "Jane Paul," a 27-year-old pregnant woman excited by the prospect of bringing a new life into the world. Jane had been using heroin for the past seven years, but when she learns she is pregnant, she g...
Carbon Balance of Forest Thinning and Bioenergy Production
By Katharine C. Kelsey
This interrupted case study introduces students to the concept of carbon storage and how land management decisions can affect this vital ecosystem service. Forests play an important role in the carbon cycle because of their ability to uptake an...
Ethnomedicine in Latino Communities of Madison
By David S. Kiefer
This PowerPoint-delivered case study guides the reader, a hypothetical student intern with the City of Madison (Wisconsin) Public Health Department, as he/she assists a physician who was awarded a grant to investigate the use of herbal medicines by L...